This invention relates generally to the field of photography and more specifically supertelephoto or mega zoom capability comprising a fully functional camera system which has been extensively field tested, improved, developed, and perfected over many years of trial and error with exeptionally effective and unheard of 1,500-3000 mm lens magnification with image stabilization, accurate metering, and auto focus confirmation enabled through the novel addition of a programmable dandelion chip to enter the focal length of 1000 mm and aperture of f10 information, allowing the camera to recognize the lens, through communicating with the adapter, and coordinate the necessary calibrations for proper image stabilization settings in the camera's computer, proper exposure, and depending on which camera system, Sony or Olympus, either confirm that the subject is in focus through focus peaking, which is digitally outlining the subject with a bright glowing “aura” of color to speed the manual focus in the case of Sony, or activation of the auto focus confirmation beep in the case of Olympus. Surprisingly, even at this magnification, all this can be accomplished hand held, for low noise photos at 1/500 or so shutter speed at ISO 400 or 200, or even almost maximum resolution ISO 100 (in bright sunlight) without the necessity of a tripod, to allow a photographer to catch more fleeting shots than they would otherwise be able.
Although it has the ability to take occasional handheld photos for the fastest reaction time possible, especially with proper physical conditioning, strength training or preparation, for extended use I recommend a quick release clamp monopod as a compromise for faster setup than a conventional tripod. The in camera image stabilization is more than sufficient to couteract any camera shake in this situation. This is an intermediate solution between supporting the weight handheld and the three point stability of a tripod. The monopod is the recommended stand to provide maximum last second maneuverability, as it can pivot freely from the ground, and nearly instantaneous setup with image stabilization counteracting any excess movement of the camera and eliminating any resultant blur. The monopod attaches securely to the lens with a standard screw to balance the camera setup and spare the photographer any of the weight of the lens or the rest of the very sturdy contraption. It is important to attach the monopod to lens directly instead of the camera, to support the weight of the lens. If the lens is not supported at all times with either a monopod or one hand, it is heavy enough to warp the adapter so that it does not communicate properly or so that it can't be easily detached as an interchangeable lens.
By contrast, standard telephoto lenses of equivalent magnification are so prohibitively heavy even for a very strong photographer, that a handheld shot without support is out of the question. Most 1000 mm lenses still lack image stabilization so they require a tripod to support them and reduce the camera shake, vibration which is magnified along their entire length. More mass concentrated farther from the body is unweildy and awkward, almost impossible to handhold for any amount of time at the 800 mm focal lengths (and this alternative mirror lens system is nearly double this magnification at even its lowest of the three progressive zoom levels). Because of inertia, standard lenses also can not be moved or swung around as quickly. However, in this instance, since the 1000 mm mirror lens essentially folds the light in half, with the barrel half as long, it might not accentuate camera shake to such an extent because it is essentially a shorter lever, and certainly the center of gravity is closer to the photographer, making it less unweildy and allowing for hand held shots with the photographer providing the support, allowing for less set up time to quickly capture the moment. That's double the magnification at half the length and probably less than half the weight.
Right now, 1000 mm mirror lenses lack auto focus and image stabilization capability, both of which are enabled in the camera instead through the “dandelion chip”, which in this case is uniquely used in this combination of three components to create mega zoom capabilites with features far beyond those found in previous setups. Currently, standard 1000 mm lenses cost more than most luxury cars and still lack built in image stabilization. In the instance of this contraption, the shake reduction is provided by Sony's in camera steady shot, or the equivalent Olympus technologies built into the camera. In the case of Olympus, likely it will soon feature the improved new 5 axis image stabilization from its mirrorless cameras, although it is not yet found in the compatible DSLR format. Recently, Olympus is starting to use Sony sensors, and with somewhat of a merger of the companies, the cameras may start to share more components and features in the future, so they may have similar improvements in the area of image stabilization as well, perhaps the best of both worlds.
With the M42 to Sony or M42 to Olympus adapter, information such as focal length of 1000 mm and aperture of f10 can now be programmed into the adapter sandwiched between the lens and the camera body, by utilizing the “dandelion chip” set of metal contacts strung along a wafer. When the lens is turned to lock on and attach to the camera, the metal plates of the dandelion chip align and match up with the pins in the camera body. These electrical contacts pass along the proper information allowing the camera and the lens to communicate, coordinate to calibrate the image stabilization correctly for such a supertelephoto lens and also allow proper light metering and exposure with the F-stop also provided to the camera's computers.
Since the camera now recognizes the lens, a focus confirmation beep is also enabled when proper focus is achieved, in the case of an Olympus camera, speeding the process even further for less of a chance of missing the shot. In the case of Sony, alternatively, the focus peaking feature will outline the subject in a color of the users choosing, creating a bright, visible aura contrasted against the background, indicating proper focus. Right now, modern standard lenses have autofocus capability, and this auto focus confirmation with a mirror lens allows a nearly equivalent alternative approach, for much faster manual focus at comparable speeds as the photographer gains experience, with the added image stabilization which those 1000 mm standard lenses lack, at less than an eighth of the price for the whole camera system when compared to even the standard 800 mm lens, say nothing about 1000 mm, which would be outside the photography budget of most. This more compact mirror lens also fits perfectly and snugly into a Lowepro cannister, a holster for easy access, which can, be attached to a belt or backpack waist band.
Rings in the bokeh, or defocused background, which has been a complaint of mirror lenses, with occasional rings seen in the highlights of the background, while the subject is in focus, is an artifact of the circular mirror in the front glass element of the lens, can be easily eliminated with Photoshop for a smooth background, so this is a thing of the past and there is not a disadvantage to using a mirror lens. If anything, the images have added novelty and texture to them. In reality, in the majority of the shots these rings in the background, a result of the different lens construction, are not visible, and if they are, because of the considerable zoom, they are considerably reduced in size and less noticeable, sort of a chain mail in the background.
At these magnifications, photographers will want to use the lowest F-stop possible, to use the maximum shutter speed to freeze the photo and eliminate blur, so the fixed Fstop of the mirror lens is not a concern, as it would have likely been set to the minimum possible f10 at all times anyway, even if there were other options. For zoomed in shots, I've found settings with minimum f stop to be optimal in almost all instances. Considering the f10 constraint, with this camera system, best results are achieved outside or in brightly lit spaces.
To get similar magnifications, a standard lens would need to use a 3× telextender, which, experience has shown, increases the imprecisely aligned glass interfaces, decreases clarity and reduces image quality or resolution significantly, while increasing the F-stop higher than a mirror lens, requiring the use of higher shutter speeds and ISO settings that both increase blur, grain, and undesireable noise many times again compared to the relative sharpness of the mirror lens. There's no comparison between the two.
Let me qualify this statement by saying that each camera system has its own unique advantages and specialties. However, for mega zoom, this system is unmatched at this moment I believe by any similarly priced system.
While they both have their advantages, through much experience and extensive testing, in some situations, the mirror lens significantly outperforms a high quality, more expensive Sigma 500 mm lens with an equivalent 2× teleconverter, and even without this telextender for distant subjects because with more magnification of the mirror lens, more of the megapixels are utilized and dedicated to capturing the subject, creating much greater resolution, especially considering the added benefit of the built in image stabilization heretofore not seen in lenses of this focal length. These mirror lenses equal or exceed the clarity of any lens I've tried at this distance.
So, experience shows the mirror lens is a better solution for clarity than the teleconverter or telextender combinations, because this adapter has no improperly aligned glass elements from combining two lenses which distorts the light during transmission like light hitting water.
Instead, for the equivalent of tripling of the 1000 mm without increasing the F-stop or aperture required (almost unheard of magnification) it is combined with either the 1.5× crop factor added to the 2× crop zoom of the Sony, or the doubling of the considerable 2× crop factor of the 4/3 Olympus camera's sensor. This effectively provides three times the magnification of the 1000 mm lens in the case of the Sony, and 2× in the case of the Olympus. This lens by itself already exceeds the longest standard lenses with image stabilization at 800 mm, so the mirror lens has effective magnification of 3000 mm or three times the bulkiest lens, all in a handheld system.
With the Sony Alpha DSLRs that have 1.5× digital crop factor, to start with the magnification is equivalent to 1500 mm at full 24 megapixel resolution, with increased magnifications of 1.4 or 2× crop zoom possible at the push of a button for 3000 mm optical zoom equivalent at about 12 megapixels, which is comparable to the Olympus E-5 flagship cameras resolution, however with about 1000 mm more additional zoom without introducing any of the blurriness caused by digital zoom which extrapolates pixels.
This new camera system detailed here is the equivalent of an alternate, more compact way, with lighter gear, of taking image stabilized, auto focus confirmed, sharp pictures with correct exposure at 3 variable zoom levels from 1500 mm to 3000 mm in the case of the Sony, and 2000 mm magnification in the case of the Olympus, which compare favorably with any powerful spotting optics. This mirror lens system can take clear snapshots with quality not impaired by teleconverters, with the curved parabolic mirrors of the mirror lens like contact lenses for correcting distant nearsighted vision. Teleconverters, by contrast, are somewhat like prescription glasses with sunglasses in front that obscure the view. Consequently, it is also important to unscrew the wavy UV filter that is sent from the manufacturer of the MTO lens which causes abberations and similar blurriness to achieve this clarity.
In the latest iteration, the camera system is providing equal or in my opinion at this point, is even exceeding the image quality, because of increased megapixel sensors and optical quality, of that seen in any available comparable standard system of this magnification. Due to camera advances, this mirror lens system provides the ability to take high quality pictures from distances previously not seen, literally, at least with this clarity, which will continue to improve with the megapixel race.
With the higher f-stop of the f10 lens, this lens system is intended and limited to daytime use, so noise with high megapixels at low light is not a concern. So, it's better to have more megapixels packed on a smaller sensor. However, if a sturdy tripod is employed ith proper technique and trigger release, for example, then it could be used in lower light as well.
A mirror lens takes in light at the front of the lens, bounces it off a curved parabolic mirror at the back to direct it and focus it forward to a central, circular mirror imbedded in the front lens glass element to reflect it directly back to the sensor, like a mirror solar collector array, thus reflecting the light upon itself for a lens and barrel that is half the length of a standard lens.
As a definition of terms, “dandelion chip” referred to above is also known as an auto focus confirmation chip, A.K.A., or goes by the abbreviated name of AF confirmation chip.